SmogDane 4,052 Posted August 31, 2019 Share Posted August 31, 2019 Really exciting game! Two minutes after I said to myself, that Dijk and Bola looked better defensively today, they both got run over twice, and didn't block crosses... But apart from that, they both showed improvement. Hope they both come good. McNair is fantastic! We played some nice attacking ball .. Tested their keeper and got unlucky for real, when Fletcher hit the inside of the post. (theirs was the outside of the post, so not at all close to scoring) ? Saville didn't get closer to getting in the team .. He was really bad the few minutes he played. Wing looked a bit better, but I bet Howson woulda played if fit. But then Wing would be subbed on instead of Sav. Front three was doing quite good! Browne is far away from starting atm. Where does Coulson fit in, when he gets back? What about Friend? Speaking of defenders... Ayala and FRy must be the choice duo, when both are fit and up to speed with minutes played! Randolph was outstanding again! Link to post Share on other sites
smogsterking the Inspirati 2,453 Posted August 31, 2019 Share Posted August 31, 2019 Positives Bola and Dijksteel had decent games and great to have Fry back who I felt looked great despite being out for so long. We played well today and liked how we were still going for it right until the end McNair has been our star man all season and another great game today. Our front 3 also looked handy and look like they have a good connection especially Fletcher and Britt The international break will hopefully see us having a full strength squad back Negatives 6 points dropped from winning positions this season. Still looking sloppy/suspect at the back I think both goals were avoidable again. Although that could be down with the new way we are playing. We just seem to pick up injuries which has exposed how small our squad is. After the first few games I think it's clear the championship is going to be wide open this season. We could so easily have won every game this season especially given some of the decisions we should have had. That said we could have easily lost them as well. I think today was encouraging with the way we played and think we are starting to see the football Woodgate wants to play beginning to be implemented on the pitch. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Brunners 7,952 Posted August 31, 2019 Share Posted August 31, 2019 Can I also say kudos to Johnson for proving to be an ever more important piece. Thought he had another good game today, maybe trying too hard at times in the second half (shooting as often as he did) but I thought his movement was excellent and the run and pass to McNair for the equaliser was (while simple) really well timed, I'm so used to our players misplaying passes like that. Link to post Share on other sites
wilsoncgp 9,228 Posted September 1, 2019 Share Posted September 1, 2019 12 hours ago, p_mards said: I saw it on Thursday in Sunderland too. It was incredibly funny. Did they slip in the brexit joke again?. They certainly did haha. ? Link to post Share on other sites
ChipBarrington 313 Posted September 1, 2019 Share Posted September 1, 2019 For me there were a bunch of 6.5 ratings today, maybe 2 played at 5 and 2 at 7.5, but what i took away from today was how enjoyable it was to watch and how I never thought the game was lost or won. Even at 90 mins I thought we might scrape it and was a bit peeved that last throw in took so long. One thing I would say is I think Woody should have brought Gestede and Browne on a bit sooner and if you are going to play Gestede, put Marv on the left and just let him put crosses in. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
wilsoncgp 9,228 Posted September 1, 2019 Share Posted September 1, 2019 Watching the highlights back, it looks like in the end City may have just edged it in terms of chances but goodness me, that Wing effort completely flat-footed the keeper, what an end to the game that could have been. When you think about the comparison in expectations, how far along Bristol City clearly are in their project, that's a pretty great point. They were missing some key players reading some of their fans' comments so perhaps a bit of a boost for us but other than that, they played like the more established side that they are under Lee Johnson. We mostly played like a team who wanted to win throughout the game and I think that approach really helped us out. That being said, the pressure was on City to get a result, you could see that, they took their fair share of gambles and earned the point. We're not going to be playing teams with that kind of pressure every week and with no disrespect to them, there will be better sides we come up against away from home where that kind of intent might lose us the game and any hope of points and maybe Woody will get a few pelters for opening us up too much. Point being that we still need to find a way to open up tighter defences in less open games and maybe, in more difficult open games, find a way to balance attack and defence to keep any future rivals at the top end from separating themselves from us. That problem was never going to be solved yesterday though so three cheers for us, incredibly happy with the point. Link to post Share on other sites
BoroJake 2,331 Posted September 1, 2019 Share Posted September 1, 2019 1 hour ago, wilsoncgp said: Watching the highlights back, it looks like in the end City may have just edged it in terms of chances but goodness me, that Wing effort completely flat-footed the keeper, what an end to the game that could have been. When you think about the comparison in expectations, how far along Bristol City clearly are in their project, that's a pretty great point. They were missing some key players reading some of their fans' comments so perhaps a bit of a boost for us but other than that, they played like the more established side that they are under Lee Johnson. We mostly played like a team who wanted to win throughout the game and I think that approach really helped us out. That being said, the pressure was on City to get a result, you could see that, they took their fair share of gambles and earned the point. We're not going to be playing teams with that kind of pressure every week and with no disrespect to them, there will be better sides we come up against away from home where that kind of intent might lose us the game and any hope of points and maybe Woody will get a few pelters for opening us up too much. Point being that we still need to find a way to open up tighter defences in less open games and maybe, in more difficult open games, find a way to balance attack and defence to keep any future rivals at the top end from separating themselves from us. That problem was never going to be solved yesterday though so three cheers for us, incredibly happy with the point. I think it would have been even better if Ryan Shotton scored from that shot in the 94th minute. Now that would be some ending to the game 1 Link to post Share on other sites
sanddancer 1,964 Posted September 1, 2019 Share Posted September 1, 2019 21 hours ago, Barnaby said: How come I feel like we dropped 2 points.... Possibly because our expectations are so low we don’t expect to beat top teams anymore hence this was seen as a good result. Having watched the game several times now I think we did play as a mid top league team apart from the simplistic goals we gifted. Link to post Share on other sites
Brunners 7,952 Posted September 1, 2019 Share Posted September 1, 2019 1 hour ago, wilsoncgp said: Watching the highlights back, it looks like in the end City may have just edged it in terms of chances but goodness me, that Wing effort completely flat-footed the keeper, what an end to the game that could have been. When you think about the comparison in expectations, how far along Bristol City clearly are in their project, that's a pretty great point. They were missing some key players reading some of their fans' comments so perhaps a bit of a boost for us but other than that, they played like the more established side that they are under Lee Johnson. We mostly played like a team who wanted to win throughout the game and I think that approach really helped us out. That being said, the pressure was on City to get a result, you could see that, they took their fair share of gambles and earned the point. We're not going to be playing teams with that kind of pressure every week and with no disrespect to them, there will be better sides we come up against away from home where that kind of intent might lose us the game and any hope of points and maybe Woody will get a few pelters for opening us up too much. Point being that we still need to find a way to open up tighter defences in less open games and maybe, in more difficult open games, find a way to balance attack and defence to keep any future rivals at the top end from separating themselves from us. That problem was never going to be solved yesterday though so three cheers for us, incredibly happy with the point. I watched the Quest highlights cause I'm always curious if they talk about us, and they spent the entire segment talking after the game about how Britt was offside for his goal. I'm amazed that people paid to talk about football don't understand the offside rule. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
wilsoncgp 9,228 Posted September 1, 2019 Share Posted September 1, 2019 2 minutes ago, Brunners said: I watched the Quest highlights cause I'm always curious if they talk about us, and they spent the entire segment talking after the game about how Britt was offside for his goal. I'm amazed that people paid to talk about football don't understand the offside rule. A lot of Bristol fans on their forum OTIB think the same apart from one or two. Though I imagine plenty would say the same on here if it was the other way around. Doesn't change the fact they're wrong though, indeed nothing wrong with the goal. Britt could have been 10 yards behind the defender when Clayton played the ball and it wouldn't have made a difference to the decision. People are talking about it like it's a recent rule change on OTIB? Is it? As far as I understood, that's been the case for ages. It's not like it's a deflection, the defender has hit the ball with intent. If their defender heads the ball forward and Britt runs back to collect it before anyone else, is he offside then too? Obviously a less likely scenario but I can't imagine anyone would remotely care if that happened. And yet technically, if that happened and we scored from that scenario, it would have to be ruled out if we change the rule the way they want. Lee Johnson was disappointed and thinks the rule is a bit rubbish as it changes whether you want your defenders to attack the ball and/or coaching your strikers to chase down situations like that as Assombalonga did. But it is the rule and he seems to accept that. Amazing that the pundits don't know that though I don't think it helps that another official on another day may give a different decision though. In that case and that case only, we got a bit lucky. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Barnaby 954 Posted September 1, 2019 Share Posted September 1, 2019 21 minutes ago, sanddancer said: Possibly because our expectations are so low we don’t expect to beat top teams anymore hence this was seen as a good result. Having watched the game several times now I think we did play as a mid top league team apart from the simplistic goals we gifted. I think we still miss Gibson at the Back Link to post Share on other sites
mendieta420 988 Posted September 1, 2019 Share Posted September 1, 2019 2 hours ago, ChipBarrington said: One thing I would say is I think Woody should have brought Gestede and Browne on a bit sooner and if you are going to play Gestede, put Marv on the left and just let him put crosses in. The weird thing about the Gestede sub is it seemed completely out of place.. All our success comes thru clever play around the box and quick feet. So bringing Gestede on to go long didn't make sense. We'd have been better fit bringing on someone like Tav or Walker. Speaking of Tav when is the lad going to get a chance? Complete waste of talent there. Wide/Forward may not be his best position but he's a much better option than Browne as things stand. One of the gripes I do have about our play in general is how often Clayton picks the ball up centrally but has no pass on. It's every game, you'd think this is the kind of play they'd hammer out during the week. Link to post Share on other sites
pikerman 1,089 Posted September 1, 2019 Share Posted September 1, 2019 I watched Woodgate being interviewed by Sky after the game and was impressed with his obvious passion for the team and the club. He also said that he changed things slightly in our defensive setup at halftime to prevent our fullbacks being isolated, and it was obvious that this improved things in the second half He also said that he hates some of the things that I do, defenders who mark space instead of players and full backs who do not get close to their man to prevent crosses. All in all, forget about the results to date I am warming to our new manager as a very effective antidote to the reign of Pulis Link to post Share on other sites
Barnaby 954 Posted September 1, 2019 Share Posted September 1, 2019 3 hours ago, wilsoncgp said: Watching the highlights back, it looks like in the end City may have just edged it in terms of chances but goodness me, that Wing effort completely flat-footed the keeper, what an end to the game that could have been. When you think about the comparison in expectations, how far along Bristol City clearly are in their project, that's a pretty great point. They were missing some key players reading some of their fans' comments so perhaps a bit of a boost for us but other than that, they played like the more established side that they are under Lee Johnson. We mostly played like a team who wanted to win throughout the game and I think that approach really helped us out. That being said, the pressure was on City to get a result, you could see that, they took their fair share of gambles and earned the point. We're not going to be playing teams with that kind of pressure every week and with no disrespect to them, there will be better sides we come up against away from home where that kind of intent might lose us the game and any hope of points and maybe Woody will get a few pelters for opening us up too much. Point being that we still need to find a way to open up tighter defences in less open games and maybe, in more difficult open games, find a way to balance attack and defence to keep any future rivals at the top end from separating themselves from us. That problem was never going to be solved yesterday though so three cheers for us, incredibly happy with the point. They won't be much tighter than Bristol City...So I was encouraged by the way we played Link to post Share on other sites
Brunners 7,952 Posted September 1, 2019 Share Posted September 1, 2019 1 hour ago, wilsoncgp said: A lot of Bristol fans on their forum OTIB think the same apart from one or two. Though I imagine plenty would say the same on here if it was the other way around. Doesn't change the fact they're wrong though, indeed nothing wrong with the goal. Britt could have been 10 yards behind the defender when Clayton played the ball and it wouldn't have made a difference to the decision. People are talking about it like it's a recent rule change on OTIB? Is it? As far as I understood, that's been the case for ages. It's not like it's a deflection, the defender has hit the ball with intent. If their defender heads the ball forward and Britt runs back to collect it before anyone else, is he offside then too? Obviously a less likely scenario but I can't imagine anyone would remotely care if that happened. And yet technically, if that happened and we scored from that scenario, it would have to be ruled out if we change the rule the way they want. Lee Johnson was disappointed and thinks the rule is a bit rubbish as it changes whether you want your defenders to attack the ball and/or coaching your strikers to chase down situations like that as Assombalonga did. But it is the rule and he seems to accept that. Amazing that the pundits don't know that though I don't think it helps that another official on another day may give a different decision though. In that case and that case only, we got a bit lucky. The rule has been in its current form for a good few years at least because I have this argument with at least one person every season when a goal like this goes in lol 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts